When Luo's mother came out, Geng was standing at the doorway. Seeing Luo's mother, she involuntarily covered her face with her hands.
"Lvlan, go ask Mama Luo where the best snacks and pastries are around here. Also, check on Mama Luo; she seems a little aggrieved," Geng said to her maid.
Green Orchid quickly agreed and immediately chased after her.
While cursing Nian Shi in her heart, Luo's mother still had to go and inquire about the ice.
"Mother Luo, Mother Luo!" Green Lan called out.
When Madam Luo heard someone calling from behind, she stopped and turned around. To her surprise, it was the "Madam's" maid.
"Miss Green Lan, what do you want with this old man?" Madam Luo was displeased at the moment. Although she had accepted the purse from Madam Nian, she felt as if she had been forced to accept it.
"Oh, our lady wants to ask you if there are any good snack shops nearby. She misses her family and wants to buy some Yangzhou snacks to take back with her," Green Orchid said, making it up.
“Oh, Madam, you’re so kind. Our house is in a bustling area. Just outside, across that little street, you’ll see Yangzhou’s famous old shops. All of Yangzhou’s most distinctive snacks are on that street,” Madam Luo said enthusiastically upon hearing this.
When Lülan noticed that Luo's mother's left cheek was slightly red, she pretended not to notice and asked in surprise, "Luo's mother, what happened to your face?"
When Madam Luo was asked about a sore spot, and having just heard that this lady still cared about her family, she immediately felt wronged. She took Green Orchid's hand and whispered, "It's not that I'm saying anything, but your second lady is really too arrogant and domineering. She insisted on asking me for ice. When I said I didn't have any, she actually hit me. Miss Green Orchid, I just don't like to cause trouble, otherwise I really wouldn't want to serve you."
Green Lan looked surprised, then said apologetically to Mother Luo, "Mother Luo, please don't be angry with her. Our lady is the kindest, it's just that Madam Nian over there has a bit of a temper."
Madam Luo grabbed Lülan's hand and said with a wronged expression, "Miss Lülan, you don't need to go out. If Madam wants to buy anything, just tell me. I'll have someone buy it for her."
"Thank you very much, Madam Luo. This is the money for our lady to buy snacks. We'll trouble you, Madam Luo," said Green Orchid.
Mother Luo didn't refuse; she was just helping out, so naturally she couldn't pay out of her own pocket.
"You mean, Madam Luo was beaten by Princess Nian?" Madam Geng was sitting by the window, looking out at the flowers on a water chestnut tree.
"Yes, that's right. They said they wanted Mama Luo to get some ice, but Mama Luo said she didn't have any, so she got beaten," Green Orchid said.
"Did you tell me what snacks you wanted to buy?" Geng asked again.
“I told you, Mama Luo said she would send someone to buy it for the princess. And as far as I know, Mama Luo thinks the princess is the master’s ‘first wife’ and that Princess Nian is the master’s ‘second wife’,” Green Orchid said with a smile.
"No wonder she was so angry, I guess that's why. It's really tough on her since she can't vent her anger." Madam Geng said with a smile.
"No wonder, Consort Nian always acts like she's a concubine. Now that she's being slighted by the servants here, I wonder how angry she is," Green Orchid said, covering her mouth with a laugh. In the mansion, Consort Nian rarely showed courtesy to Consorts like Geng and Wu, who were not favored by the Fourth Prince. As a result, her maids also treated everyone with arrogance. People like Green Orchid, who occasionally bumped into them in the kitchen, would often suffer their temper.
"Did you give the money to Madam Luo?" Geng asked again.
“Of course she was given it; she’s very willing to do things for the princess,” said Green Orchid.
"Once she buys them, give her some. After all, she's not a real servant; you should always thank her for doing things for you," said Madam Geng.
When Madam Luo finally managed to get ice for Madam Nian, Madam Nian didn't treat her with much courtesy, dismissing her as if she were one of her own servants. Madam Luo disapproved of Madam Nian's behavior even more, while she was very willing to do things for Madam Geng. Green Lan gave half of the snacks Madam Geng had bought to Madam Luo, instructing her to distribute them to the servants serving there.
Although they were just local snacks and didn't cost much more, the servants were all deeply impressed by Geng's tolerance and generosity, and also deeply impressed by Nian's bad temper and arrogance.
Since Fourth Master went out every day, he was almost always out from dawn till dusk, and could not be seen at all. Therefore, when Fourth Master returned, he often rested in the room prepared for him in the front.
After several days of investigation, Fourth Master, Thirteenth Master, and Cui Da and Cui Er were basically certain that the soil contained too much iron, which caused it to turn red. The sudden reddening, coupled with a lack of certain plant nutrients, led to widespread crop failures.
In order to better investigate the cause of this matter, Fourth Master had no choice but to reveal his identity and go to the local government office in charge of grain to begin investigating the soil problem together with them.
Although Fourth Master revealed his identity to the local officials, he refused all their enthusiastic invitations and didn't even tell them where he lived. Every day after finishing his business, he would ride away with Thirteenth Master.
Several times, the Fourth Prince and the Thirteenth Prince noticed they were being followed and began playing a game of hide-and-seek with the local officials. The Fourth Prince was actually afraid. He hadn't brought many people with him, and if they were to encounter another assassination attempt like the last one, even though his wife's cousin was in Yangzhou and controlled the local troops, he didn't want to seek help from the Ulanara family unless absolutely necessary.
After tireless efforts, Fourth Master finally discovered the source of the excessive iron in the soil. It turned out the problem was with the water used to irrigate the fields. They found many dead fish near a large reservoir in Yangzhou, a sight unseen in the city for many years. Fourth Master and his men examined the fish and discovered that their internal organs were all reddish, which led him to connect the issue to the red soil.
It turned out that the water used to irrigate the farmland contained excessive iron, leading to poor harvests and the death of large numbers of fish. However, even after discovering this, the problem remained unsolved. What exactly caused the high iron content in the water?
Our Fourth Master doesn't understand why large tracts of fertile land have turned into red soil. He doesn't know that this is called "pollution," let alone that it is human factors that have caused changes in the trace substances in the water.
However, Fourth Master understood a principle: tracing the source of the water might reveal the key to the problem. So he, along with Thirteenth Master and local officials, began searching for the origin of the excessive iron in the water.
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